HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Video Card Review

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Radeon R9 270X Final Thoughts

When I first heard the re-brand rumors I was slightly disappointed but then seeing the prices suddenly perked my interest right back up. AMD have been playing on the back foot in performance terms compared to NVIDIA. But now with the price cuts on the HD7000 series video cards, and the low intro price of the R9 and R7 video cards, AMD have changed the playing field considerably. All we want to see now though, are the ‘Hawaii’ R9 290 and 290X GPU’s. We want to see if AMD really have what it takes to compete with the ‘Kepler’ GTX780 and Titan video cards, and really even out the playing field.

HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Conclusion

Before we think about ratings I will write a brief summary for each of the following; Performance, Appearance, Construction, Functionality and Value. This will aid me in giving the HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB video card a final score and give you a consolidated summary of the entire review. I do strongly suggest that you read the entire review, if you have not already, so that you can arrive at your own conclusion.

My performance rating of the HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB is based on a comparison between a Radeon HD7950 and an NVIDIA GTX 560Ti. While this isn’t the most ideal set to compare the R9 270X to, I’m hoping that you the readers will already know where these video cards stand in comparison to the GTX 660/660Ti and GTX760. With a super high factory overclock of 1140MHz, the HIS R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB was almost reaching Radeon HD7950 speeds. In the benchmark tests there was an average of 4.5 frames difference between the two video cards.

I think the HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB video card looks absolutely awesome. The stock box designs of the AMD reference video cards has had a snazzy makeover, but these after market designs just blow them out of the water. There is a downside to having a good looking card however. All of the after market designs that I have seen exhaust most of their warm air inside the case rather than straight out the back like the AMD stock design. Sure you get a cooler core but you will also get a warmer interior case temperature to deal with too.

The HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB is an extremely well constructed video card. Considering the size of the PCB and Cooler you could be forgiven for thinking it will be super heavy, but it’s not. There is a bit of weight to deal with, but HIS have this covered with their integrated component/mosfet/memory cooler that also doubles as a PCB support plate. Overall, the construction of the entire card, and layout of components are infallible.

Functionality wise, the HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB video card could have been better. Factory overclocked out of the box and cool and quiet operation are the strong points of this video card. HIS have really pushed the R9 270X Pitcairn GPU to its limits and this unfortunately meant there wasn’t much overclocking headroom or voltage adjustments to back it up. The default fan profile does an excellent job of keeping temperatures in check while remaining quiet. The noise of the fans at 100% isn’t really worth the 3 degrees of temperature reduction when compared to the temperatures and noise level achieved with the default fan profile.

Priced online for $$219.99 (NewEgg / Amazon), the HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB video card is ~$20 more than your average R9 270X video card but isn’t the most expensive model I have found. The question is whether or not the extra cost is worth the extra performance achieved. These cards are undoubtedly priced to take a dent out of NVIDIA’s profits and this is all good for the PC gaming community.

Unless you desperately need a current generation video card for whatever reason, you can do much better for your money at this level to buy a previous generation Radeon HD7870 while stock is still available. With recent price cuts by AMD and their partners, you can pick up an equivalent HIS IceQ Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB video card for $45 cheaper.